How to Behave Badly in Renaissance Britain

Every age and every social strata has its bad eggs, those who break all the rules and rub everyone up the wrong way. This is not a history of criminal behaviour as such, although some of the activities in this book shade into the legally dubious; rather, it is a study of the niggling, anti-social, irritating ways that people have kicked back against prevailing social mores. Drunkards, swashbucklers and harridans rub shoulders with people with disgusting table manners and neighbours whose dung heaps and noise drove others crazy.

Historian and popular TV presenter Ruth Goodman draws upon advice books and manuals, court cases and sermons, drama and imagery to outline bad behaviour from the gauche to the galling, the subtle to the outrageous. Ruth will explore the details of those behaviours, such as just how far apart your feet should be if you wish to mock a soldier or how to parody the walk of a preacher to the amusement of your friends and if you do blow your nose during dinner how to put everyone off their food.